


Danger, Teamwork Ahead

by BlueSakura007



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Break Up, Comedy, Coming of Age, Drunken Shenanigans, Drunkenness, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, Eventual Sex, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Graduation, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Humor, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Sex, Pansexual Elim Garak, Post-Break Up, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Romantic Comedy, Sitcom, Teen Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:34:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28876527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueSakura007/pseuds/BlueSakura007
Summary: In the early 2370s, in San Francisco, Lerina is a single mother - and our occasional narrator - in her early twenties who is also a student at the local university, West Bay Grove Academy, along with her all-male best friends, Julian, Elim and Miles. Although they're often at the mercy of Dukat and Sloan, their unsympathetic vice principals, these four go about the hapless and hilarious turbulence of their adulting lives - both during and outside of university hours - which include group outings, TV nights, girlfriends and boyfriends, and careers.[Based on content from various different things but mostly Some Girls and The Inbetweeners, because I especially love Some Girls, and the text is all italics for Leri's narrations and all bold for flashbacks. Also Jadzia and Ezri both exist at the same time in this.]
Relationships: Benjamin Sisko/Kasidy Yates, Elim Garak/Tora Ziyal, Grilka/Quark (Star Trek), Jadzia Dax/Worf, Julian Bashir/Original Female Character(s), Keiko O'Brien/Miles O'Brien, Kira Nerys/Odo, Leeta/Rom (Star Trek), Original Human Character(s)/Original Romulan Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Danger, Teamwork Ahead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a video game craze sweeping over the main four's university like a contagion, leaving them to get to the bottom of this addiction around them by buying a copy of the game themselves and leaving the vice principals to make an attempt at curbing it.

Deep within the Californian suburbs, a pair of knee-length black zip-up boots emerged out of the front door of one of the many apartments lining a tower block. It was the 2370s in October, a Monday, to be specific, and as usual for this month there was a whisper of approaching Autumn in the air and in the tree leaves.

_My name is Lerina Sonia Menith Zielinski. I'm currently nineteen years old, and I suppose you could say I'm a girl of two worlds, or a hybrid, or whatever you decide to call it. My mother's a Human from Poland, but my dad is a Romulan defector, so as you'd have guessed this got me a few looks back when I was little. But that was about it, though - apart from that it's mostly been smooth sailing on the half-Romulan front._

The wearer of these boots - and the owner of our narrating voice, my reader - walked down the landing outside of her and her parents' apartment towards the staircase which would lead her down to the ground, her shoulders carrying a predominantly black but white-rimmed backpack and the rest of her current attire consisting of dark grey trousers, a fastened up matching blazer, a tucked in white blouse, and a black tie with very thin diagonal stripes of red, blue and yellow. The uniform of an insitution in that area known as West Bay Grove Academy.

 _What else about me..._ Our narrator said in thought _. Well, I'm studying to eventually, if all goes to plan, become a mechanical engineer, and I also live in San Francisco, in a block somewhere in an industrial area. Now, before you say anything, not everyone here fits the stereotype you'd think of when someone says the words 'apartment block in an industrial area'; just because we live in a factory district that doesn't mean we're all just single mums and alcoholics. Although I do actually fit into that first category, I won't lie to you. Yep, that's who I share a room with in said apartment block: a five month old baby girl whose so-called daddy packed up his things, disappeared into thin air and left me soon after he found out about his daughter's existence. But all in all, she's wonderful and I wouldn't trade Hazel Zielinski for anything._  
_For her father, meanwhile, wherever he is, there's very few days when I can ignore the straight, simple fact that he's a complete and absolute-_

"Ah, good morning, Lerina!" The voice of a newcomer cut through the air, addressing the woman now that she was on the ground and walking towards the street and away from the block. Her hair was long but was tied up into a low bun twenty-nine times out of thirty, and, in terms of colour, was ultra blonde courtesy of her Human half, with her eyes being a piercing grey. In addition, her eyebrows and ears were pointed thanks to her biology's other half.

"Hey!" Greeted Lerina in return, going over to this other person and then walking alongside him. He was in the same year group as her, only being a few months older, and was a handsome young Cardassian man with neck-length black hair and blue-green eyes who was wearing the same uniform and carrying a dark red messenger bag.

 _That's Elim Garak. He's been a friend of myself and a couple of others since my first year at our university, and he's a fashion design student with some kind of penchant for... I don't really know what else to call it apart from leading people on and making himself some kind of man of mystery.  
_ **One one particular occasion, he was standing in a hallway at the university with his back to his locker when a member of the student council, Benjamin Sisko, walked past him and noticed a somewhat bloodied plaster on the Cardassian's right thumb.**

**"What happened there?" Asked Benjamin, nodding with his head down towards the plaster.**

**"Oh, this?" Elim raised up his right hand, which, like the left one, had been down at his side until this moment. "That's for me to know and for you to find out." He gave the other male in front of him a sly smile, to which the now slightly confused Benjamin then nodded and continued on his way down the corridor.  
**

**"It wouldn't have anything to do with a piece of textiles machinery, would it?" From off to his right, at her own locker, there came the sound of another student, a studious and coolheaded Trill named Jadzia Dax who had just caught a momentary glimpse of Elim's sewing machine tutorial handbook, which he'd sneakily slipped into the darkness at the back of his locker, on the top shelf, before Benjamin appeared. "I just saw that sewing manual of yours."  
**

**He looked straight back at Jadzia. "I'm afraid you saw nothing of the sort, my dear."**

Back in the present moment, it had been a few minutes since Lerina and Elim had begun walking on their way to this university, as they did most mornings, and they were now about a third of the way there. The latter lived the nearest to her compared to the two others in their friend group, in the other apartment block opposite hers, which meant that they ran into each other that soon in the morning journey very often.

"So what's all this business about with that new video game that came out last month? Back on Thursday I saw people in class doing some kind of fight move from it." She asked, turning her head towards the male on her left.

"I'm not entirely familiar with the title or the other fine details myself, but from what I do know, that move is known as the Blitz Kick. It's apparently supposed to be some kind of tactic in the same for fully disabling enemies the player finds his or herself facing. I also briefly caught a glance of an article in the local newspaper about the game, claiming that it's not suitable for young people." Said Elim.

"Oh yeah - only adults are legally allowed to buy it based on what I've heard." The blonde added.

"It must be rather extreme content for that kind of age limit to apply, then."

"And addictive. Sometimes last week it was like the entire class was doing that move."

"A large majority of my own classmates also partook in it." The aspiring tailor nodded. "It's as if it's some kind of virus spreading throughout the university without constraint."

"How many people do you think this video game 'virus' has already spread to?" Enquired Lerina out of curiosity.

"I don't know. Possibly dozens by now."

"Nope, more like hundreds." Even later on, at this uni itself, one of the other two in their friend group gave this answer as the pair brought up the same conversation again, standing together next to the front gates along with many other groups of students who were also taking part in chatting to each other. This third member was one of Lerina's classmates and had short but curly dark brown hair and hazel-blue eyes, and, in addition, spoke with an Irish accent. His own bag, like hers, was a backpack.

_That's my boy Miles O'Brien. I've known him since we were in middle school together, so he's my oldest friend in our quartet and probably the closest. He's in the same engineering class as me, too, so it means we get to use mechanics jargon on each other that's basically foreign to the other pair - I suppose it's like a kind of best friend secret language for us. Oh, and if I had to pick one, he's probably the sanest one out of us, because he's the oldest and he's normally the one who bails us out of trouble and keeps an eye on us in the same way that a babysitter might.  
_

**There was one instance a few months prior of this, where Lerina was desperately groping around in the slot of a vending machine in one of the hallways for a bag of chocolates that was supposed to have come out. Miles, who was walking down this same hallway at this moment, walked over to her to see what was going on.  
"A delayed delivery, huh?" **

**"Yeah." She said in reply, clenching her teeth and reaching up through the slot even more vigorously.**

**"Come on, you've got to get your arm back out of there, or you'll end up hurting yourself." Miles said, in the same tone a parent would use on their young child.**

**"But I've got to get it out!" Protested Lerina, looking up at him with eyes that begged for him to let her keep her hand in there.**

**"I'm sure it'll fall out on its own, come on." In this same tone, he knelt down to her and gently pried her arm out of the slot, to which she unsuccessfully tried to resist.**

**"Noooo!"**

**It was only a second later when, sure enough, there was a faint _thud_ as something fell down into the vending machine's retrieval slot, which they both saw, upon looking downwards at it, was a bag of peppermint truffles.  
"There you go, see?" The Irishman smiled at her. **

**"Yaaaay!"**

"However it's happening, this game addiction's definitely taken over more than just a few dozen." He contributed to the discussion further, back in the present. "How d'you think it _is_ happening?"

"Perhaps it’s the combat move everyone’s doing from it? The Blitz Kick?" Suggested Elim, fetching out one of his fashion theory textbooks from his locker’s top shelf. "It’s like it’s some kind of memetic."

"Makes sense - I mean we all know how fast even the slightest little inkling of something new like this spreads in this place."

"You mean like how quickly everyone found out I was pregnant last year before it’d even started to show?" Lerina gave one such example. 

"Exactly, and that particular news spread happened in just one afternoon!" The Cardassian agreed with this point.

"Or how quickly everyone heard about and dug up that video from way back in the 21st century of a baby panda sneezing." The other aspiring engineer made his contribution to the same idea.

"Or two years ago when you lost a _certain something_ and people found out about that, as well." Another voice suddenly spoke out from to their right, a little bit further down the corridor from where they were standing: this one contained an English accent and belonged to a newcomer who was the fourth member of the quartet. He was the tallest out of the four, being only about three quarters of an inch taller than Miles, and had tan skin due to being of Arabic descent, a lanky body build, neat dark brown hair and warm, lighter brown eyes. 

Lerina smiled deviously, but in a joking manner. "By 'certain something', I take it you mean Miles' virgi-"

"Yes alright, thank you, I think we know what he means." This oldest group member himself hurriedly cut her off, making the newcomer smile as a way of expressing a suppressed chuckle.

_And finally, that’s Julian Bashir. He's one of the medical students, and he’s got the highest IQ out of the four of us but I think he’s somehow one of the most happy-go-lucky but hapless people I know as well. This is another case where I don't know how else to describe it, but Julian is... shall we say... sort of like a giraffe calf in these times of haplessness.  
_

**One time roughly around two months ago, said medical student was walking out of a door at the university which led to outside while, at the same time, leafing through a journal he kept on his studies; a very large majority of the pages in this journal consisted of bar and pie charts and other detailed notes stored neatly at the sides. And then, all of a sudden, the front of his blazer - the part to the left of his chest - got caught on one of the door’s window clasps as he exited, which he didn’t realise until he was jerked back by this clasp, making a pen that he was holding in his other hand and that was one of his favourite and best-working ones fly out of his fingers. Before he could unhook his blazer and therefore himself from the window clasp, the pen fell a few feet in front of him, rolling across that area of the ground until it happened to roll right into a sewer grate.  
**

**" _Nooo!_ " Julian cried out at the loss of such an efficient and loyal pen, his companion for many a textbook-based caper.  
**

"So, what have I missed?" He said to the other three back in the present day, moving to stand next to Miles and lean his back up against his own locker. 

"That new video game’s spreading in addiction form throughout the university." This curly haired one out of the group told him. 

"And we believe it could be because of its signature Blitz Kick move." Elim explained further. 

"Ah. It’s called Tokyo Sin: Reich District. The objective of the game is that the player’s a samurai warrior in 1940s Japan and they’re supposed to hunt down Nazi prostitutes." Julian put in his own explanation in return. 

"It sounds like a definite leap up from Zork..." Commented the Cardassian at this description - the high age rating now made quite a lot of sense. 

"You know about Zork?" Lerina turned her head to the left to look at him in response to his remark he’d just made.

He nodded his own head. "After my mother and I first came to Earth, I learned about the earliest Human computerised games for a little while. From what I understand, it was a simple but fairly popular game at the time when it was created, along with another from a few decades later, I think its title was Undertale, if I remember correctly."

"So what’s the Blitz Kick all about?" Asked the only female, this time addressing the Englishman. 

"When the player uses it, they kick an enemy in the head, and it causes their entire head to explode and kills them instantly as a result." He did the motion of an explosion from the side of his head with his right hand.

"We think this addiction to the game and to the move is spreading like some kind of virus." Added Elim, also speaking to this same lanky group member. 

"Hang on, viruses have to get inside the host and do their damage from the interior while bacteria does it all from the outside of the body, so wouldn't a better analogy be that it's spreading like a bacterium?" Julian's eyebrows quirked slightly.

"Oh? How so?"

"Well, it's making them all imitate the Blitz Kick, which is an external behaviour and plays into the bacteria analogy as a result."

"But to make them carry out that imitation, the addiction first gets inside their heads, which is the interior and is therefore more akin to a viral infection." Replied the fashion enthusiast.

"Oh yeah. You're right, come to think of it." The one in the medical field afterwards accepted defeat in the discussion, realising that the comparison to a virus was indeed more accurate. "Plus, viral infections are more easily spread, and we've all seen how quickly the love for the game has gone around the university."

"The point is, maybe we should take a look at it ourselves." Miles attempted to steer the conversation back away from this tangent it had just taken.

"How do you mean?" Now it was Lerina's turn for her brows to quirk.

"Maybe the best way we can find out about how and why the craze has gone so far like this is for us to actually give it a go. We could buy a copy of the game, then meet up and take turns playing it, so we can see what all the fuss is about."

"That does actually sound like a fair enough idea." She tilted her head by a few degress and nodded it. "I mean all four of us are legally allowed to purchase it ourselves since we're over the age of eighteen."

"What time does everybody feel like doing the meet-up part of the plan?"

"Tomorrow night immediately after we're done here?" Elim recommended, to which the others either nodded or answered with "Yeah", or both.

"I'll be the one to buy the game copy." Said Julian, before a somewhat wide-eyed smile suddenly crossed over his face. "I just thought of something: once this is all over we should play Pogs together!"

"Play what?" Asked Miles in confusion. 

"It’s another game that I heard of a while ago, but it’s a real, physical game and not a computerised one. Apparently it was a rather big craze back in the late 20th century." He then got into the full swing of his exhilaration at explaining it. "You’re supposed to make a tall pile of a special brand of small cardboard discs, then throw more of those cardboard discs at the pile to knock it down."

The other three all turned their heads to look to their right at him - Lerina leaning forwards and Elim doing this to a greater degree due to the latter being on the other side’s edge and the former being next in the line - with expressions of palpable perplexity, as if he were a mentally unstable weirdo.   
"No?" Julian was still smiling as he looked back at the staring trio and did feeble disc-throwing motions with his left hand, these motions slowing down as the awkwardness set in. "Alright, I’ll stop."


End file.
